St. George's, Newfoundland and Labrador
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St. George's South Side, Little Bay |
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|---|---|
| Town | |
 St. George's
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| Coordinates: 48°25′39″N 58°28′40″W / 48.42750°N 58.47778°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Province |
 Newfoundland and Labrador
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| Settled | 18th century |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 6,700 |
| Time zone | Newfoundland Time (UTC-3:30) |
| • Summer (DST) | Newfoundland Daylight (UTC-2:30) |
| Area code(s) | 709 |
| Website | St. George's official website |
St. George's (2005 est. pop.: <2000) is a Canadian community in the St. George's Bay on the southwest coast of Newfoundland of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The community, originally known as South Side or Little Bay has its origins in the French fishery of the seventeenth century when the good natural harbour would attract fishermen to spend the summer in the area and return to France for the winter months. Permanently settled in the eighteenth century, the community remained a fishing village for nearly 200 years until the advent of the railroad.
Mi'kmaq villages in St. Georges Bay and Placentia existed in 1594. Jeannot Pequidalouet - the eastern Mi'kmaq chief of Cape Breton, who had previously overwintered in Newfoundland - began to create permanent settlements in St. George's Bay and Miawpukek in the 1760s. In May of 1767 when James Cook was mapping Newfoundland coast, he met a tribe of Mi'kmaq in St. George's Bay.
In the seventeenth century the French fishermen spent the summer months in St. Georges harbour and returned to France for the winter. They began to overwinter in the eighteenth century and St. Georges continued to be a fishing village "for nearly 200 years until the advent of the railroad."
The railroad came to Western Newfoundland in 1898, and because of the work that the railway created, as well as access to many different types of goods, many people from outlying communities flocked to St. George's. The town quickly became a major centre in Western Newfoundland. The town became a distributor of goods to the surrounding area and the Port au Port Peninsula. Lumbering, fishing and farming were the primary occupations and lobster plants also opened there. A brewery/distillery also operated there for a short time at the turn of the century. The community also became the seat of the magistrate in the area and a courthouse was constructed.
St. Georges hosts an Annual Blueberry Festival every August at Blueberry Hill.
Sandy Point, located 35 kilometres south of Stephenville, is an uninhabited 2,471-acre (1,000-hectare) island of natural wealth in St. Georges Bay.
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Wikipedia